224 BIOLOGY OF PNEUMOCOCCUS 



Conning the reports published by Bullowa, Park, and Sutliff and 

 Finland, Heffron arranged in tabular form the data representing 

 the fatality-rate in lobar pneumonia caused by pneumococci of 

 types other than the first three. 



The above data are too few to permit statistical analysis, yet 

 they are already guiding manufacturers in preparing antipneumo- 

 coccic serum in accordance with the more prevalent types of pneu- 

 mococci responsible for lobar pneumonia in this country. 



The only report available on the lethal power of the different 

 types of Pneumococcus in bronchopneumonia is that of Sutliff and 

 Finland (1933). 1361 Here again, the data are meager, but there can 

 be no gainsaying the fact that bronchopneumonia caused by pneu- 

 mococci, with its high death-rate, is a serious affliction to man. 



Localized Epidemics of Pneumococcal Infection 



The infectiousness of Pneumococcus for individuals living in 

 close association is demonstrated by the occasional outbreaks of 

 acute disease of the respiratory tract. Sinigar (1903) 1292 described 

 an epidemic among the staff and patients of an asylum, but inas- 

 much as the bacteriological study consisted merely in the micro- 

 scopic examination of preparations of sputum and from the lungs 

 of fatal cases, one is in the dark as to whether the epidemic was 

 caused by a pneumococcus. 



The presence of pneumococci of the various serological types 

 associated with common colds has been too frequently noted to re- 

 quire extended discussion. The results of a study reported by Val- 

 entine (1918) 1442 may be cited as typical. From sixty-five cases of 

 upper respiratory infections diagnosed as colds, pneumococci were 

 recovered in forty-three instances. Of the organisms, two belonged 

 to Pneumococcus Type I, two to Type II, four were of the third 

 type, and the remainder fell into the heterogeneous Group IV. A 

 more compact source of material for study was an outbreak of re- 

 spiratory infection among the inmates of a children's home shelter- 

 ing more than seven hundred children of both sexes between the 



